Australians are under enormous cost-of-living pressure. People are being forced to choose between spending money on their health and their mortgage or rent payments, between their power bill and putting food on the table. Every time they fill up their car, it is costing a small fortune. In my electorate, I just checked the price. As of today, it's $2.89 a litre for diesel. Out of that, 53.7 cents goes direct to the government in excise and then 26 cents for GST. It could be argued that the government's really having a bit of a windfall from the high price of fuel. Families are paying more, small businesses are paying more and transport operators are paying more.

In regional Australia, the impact is huge. We can't just get on a train or a bus. They can't fix everything for us, and when we think of fuel prices it affects every single thing we touch, particularly food. High diesel prices mean higher freight costs, and higher freight costs directly impact the cost of groceries. When we think about the journey of food from the farm gate to our kitchen tables, it's grown on farms. From the very beginning of preparation of soil, it requires diesel. It's transported on trucks that require diesel. It's processed, stored and delivered to supermarkets—again, more diesel. I'm told by experts that the cost of food in Australia is about to rise significantly because of the cost of fuel.

My motion has a very clear ask for government. The government did a temporary halving of the fuel excise for a period when the Iran war first began. Petrol prices have not reduced at all. Diesel prices have not reduced, but the relief that the government provided from the excise costs went away. I would urge the government to bring it back because we are dealing with an inflationary challenge in Australia. We are dealing with massive costs of every single aspect of life. Life is hard. Life is so hard in regional Australia at the moment. People are going: 'Can I afford to drive to church? Can I afford to drive the kids to school?' Everything is so, so difficult for families.

We just don't have the luxury of a bus. We don't have the luxury of a train. We rely on our cars. We have to fill them up to use them. I would urge the government: if you genuinely care about the needs of regional Australia, if you want to see the relief happen across the board in Australia—it's not just us, but I think we feel it most keenly, and, Deputy Speaker, I know that you represent a regional community and you too have these challenges—then we have to reduce the fuel excise in this nation. We absolutely have to. At the moment, I believe regional Australia is being left with the full burden of the high fuel prices, and this is a very practical and simple way we can help. Halving the fuel excise would provide immediate relief at the bowser and help ease the pressure flowing through the economy.

This is something we could do that could very much address inflation, and that, in turn, would hopefully provide some easing. We know that the Commonwealth Bank—sorry, the Reserve Bank—is meeting again just next week, I think. It's always around Melbourne Cup Day. It's that day when everyone with a mortgage holds their breath. I feel that we just are not doing enough in this place to make life easier for Australians. Australians tell me all the time that this is the hardest they have ever known life to be in their adult life. We can do much more. This is a very simple, measured way to do that.